


Cradling You in My Arms

by afrostpatternintherain



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Galra!Keith, M/M, i'm literally too tired to tag anything else i'm sorry mes amies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-22 20:56:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7453663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrostpatternintherain/pseuds/afrostpatternintherain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he had first seen the purple rash spreading over his skin, he tried to not think of the worst. On a mission, it ends up affecting him and also his team work, resulting in bruises and pain. Can he be saved or will he die trying to hide his agony?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cradling You in My Arms

He couldn't even remember when it had gotten this bad.   
It had started with a purple rash appearing on the back of his hand, covering a bit of his skin.  
He and the others had to train to form Voltron most of the time, so he had soon forgotten about it.  
Yet it had continued to spread from week to week, bit by bit.  
First, it only covered the back of his hand. Soon after, his fingers and wrists went purple as well, followed by his right forearm until it eventually covered his whole right arm.  
Telling the other paladins was out of the question, so he did what seemed most logical to him: He avoided wearing T-Shirts and changed his fingerless gloves to normal gloves.  
Their mission to defend the planets was more important than his own problems.  
Deep down, Keith knew what this ill-omened purple colour meant. This didn't mean that he was simply going to accept it though. There needed to be another explanation. A much simpler one. There had to be another explanation.

The alarm started to blare.  
'Get into your lions, you have to form Voltron!'  
Jumping up from his bed, Keith quickly changed into his uniform and headed down to his lion.  
When everyone had arrived, they all set course towards their destination, another ship of the Galra the princess had found.  
The air around them was tense and they were all focused on the enemy in front of their eyes.  
For the time being everything went by smoothly, after they had formed Voltron the difference in strength between them and their opponent was distinct.  
Suddenly, Allura contacted them through their communication system.  
'Retreat, right now!'  
But it was too late.  
An even bigger ship appeared, seemingly coming out of nowhere. It struck out and hit Voltron with force. As a result, they broke apart and the lions scattered into various directions.  
Trying to regain control over Red, Keith saw the others struggling as well. This time the enemies had gotten them good.  
His arm hurt and he attempted to regain his composure and control over the lion at the same time.  
'Keith, what are you doing? Swerve!'  
The impact came as soon as Shiro's voice had vanished from the communication system.  
Keith was being thrown through the inside space of Red.  
He crashed against the wall and there was a loud, disturbing cracking sound followed by pain. His leg was probably broken by now. It hurt like hell.  
Another impact, the lion fluctuated back and forth. Keith was thrown to the lion's other side.  
His head hit the ground and he began to feel dizzy. There was the warm feeling of blood trickling down his face.  
The shaking of the lion stopped and he was finally able to crawl back to the control board.   
His arm still hurt and he wasn't able to move it anymore.  
'Keith are you alright?'  
'Say something mullet man!'  
'Come on, Keith.'  
They were all worried.  
'I'm alright,' he reassured them, hoping they wouldn't hear the agony drenching his words.  
He wasn't going to endure this for much longer. They had to fight now.  
As they reformed Voltron it took him all he had to stay focused and conceal his pain. The others weren't supposed to know about his injuries just yet. He could wait till they got back to the castle.  
He was strong enough.  
Defeating the enemy was now easy, the sneak attack was what had made him seem that strong in the first place. With their teamwork, they struck him down.  
Finally, they returned home to the castle and disbanded to land their lions. This was the only task left.  
After fulfilling it, Keith collapsed, not having any energy left in his body.  
Far away, there was someone shouting his name.  
'Keith! Hang in there, buddy.'  
He could feel warm hands gliding over his body, searching for any exterior wounds. As they reached his arms, he panicked and grabbed the other person's wrist.  
'Don't.'  
'Cut the crap. I need to know how severe your wounds are, Keith.'  
He now recognized the voice. It belonged to Lance.  
He struggled once more. 'You don't want to see that.'  
With a swift movement, he felt the glove on his right arm being pulled down, followed by the sound of Lance taking in a deep breath.  
'What's going on?'  
Forcing himself to open his eyes, Keith stared at Lance who was cradling him in his arms.  
'I have no idea.'  
And finally, his vision darkened and he was welcomed by endless darkness.

As he saw Keith's eyes, full of fear and uncertainness of the unknown, Lance knew he was telling the truth. Still, he couldn't wrap his head around this thing he had just seen: Keith's arm, completely tainted purple.  
Heaving him onto his back, he ran as fast as possible till he reached his destination. Out of breath, he put Keith into the healing crystal and went away to inform the others about his state.

Lance paced through the room.  
Three days had already passed and Keith was still healing. Everyone was worried about him since he had been in a very critical condition. Yet all they could do was wait. Allura had assured them that everything was going to be alright, but they were still anxious.  
Now Lance was all by himself, waiting for Keith to regain consciousness.  
He was terribly impatient, so he kept himself busy by knitting  
a pair of fingerless gloves.  
Finally, there was the sound of the healing crystal's door opening.  
Lance got there just in time to catch Keith who was, due to his drowsiness, threatening to fall to the ground.   
With a loud groan, he looked up.  
'What happened?'  
Lanced looked at him as well.  
'Don't you remember any of it? You got beaten to a pulp by that trashy alien ship and pretended to be a-okay. Are you stupid?'  
'Shut up.'  
He then proceeded to straighten his stance and brush off his clothing.  
'I'll go back to my room.'  
Lance held him back by his wrist and pulled him closer just to pull off Keith's glove.  
'How about we talk?'  
Trying to put on his glove again, he froze.  
'I can't.'  
'Sure you can.'  
Keith shook his head, growing angry.  
'What am I supposed to tell you?! I don't even now what's going on myself!' he avoided looking at Lance.'I don't know what to do.'  
'We can figure this out.'  
'Everyone will leave me. I'll end up being alone again,' Keith clarified, causing Lance to pull him even closer.  
'They won't. Even if I have to force them, they will stay with you,' he said, his voice filled with determination.  
Before he could think about it, he pulled Keith into a warm embrace.  
'My mum used to hug me like that when I wasn't feeling well.'  
Keith couldn't help but cling to Lance.  
'Why are you helping me? You hate me, did you already forget about that?' he mumbled, his voice muffled since his face was buried in the crook of Lance's neck.  
'Shhh. We're having a moment. I'm cradling you in my arms.'  
'Fuck you, Lance.'  
There was a moment of silence until he proceeded.  
'But thank you.'

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my dear readers, I hope you enjoyed my work! Voltron Legendary Defender has consumed my lif e in the short span of a few days,so here I am now!


End file.
